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Tour in Florence

We are looking for a guided tour or Florence that includes more than just the Acedmia. We originally were looking for a guided tour that started in Rome and would travel by high speed train to Florence so we would not spend the majority of our tour time in a minivan or slow transport to get there. Interestingly, there are few to no tours that take you to mulitple highlighted sites in this enchanting place. Does anyone know of a good contact for a guided tour of the city for a day tour of possibly 10 people on Friday March 13?

Posted by
245 posts

My tour company of choice is Context Travel, and they offer full and half day walking tours --= some limited to one location (eg the Uffizi or Palazzo Vecchio), and others to a general overview or a themed tour. Personally, I used them only for the Uffizi in Florence, and saw other places independently. I used them for 4 tours during my 4 week trip.

Posted by
89 posts

I have taken several tours with Walks of Italy. They have tours in Florence that seem to meet your criteria. The guides have always been exceptional.

Posted by
2098 posts

We've used Walks of Italy and it is wonderful. Most tours start around 8:30. Many tours don't finish until late afternoon. Even if you can arrange it, your day sounds brutal. Herding 10 people would only complicate the situation.

Posted by
71 posts

Hello,

My son is getting married in May in Florence. We will have a group of 10 touring with us. I contacted 4 different private tour guides and one really stood out. I've never been to Italy so to say she is a great "tour guide", I can not as of yet. However, I can testify to her response time and willingness to help plan tours. I told her what we needed and she designed tours for us within our time frame since we were working around wedding activities. She created a personalized itinerary for us with the things we wanted to see specifically. We emailed constantly for about 2 weeks making adjustments etc. I also find her reasonable in prices since they are custom tours.

She is recommended in Rick's guide and is very reasonable. If she didn't provide the services we requested, she took care of booking it for us. ex. We wanted a vespa tour of the Chianti countryside. She doesn't do those tours but she contacted a company she works closely with and set up everything for us. She has even made arrangements for someone to transport us from the train station to the B&B. In other words, she does more than just tours. I believe her website lists a host of services she provides. Personal shopper is even one of them.

So, you can check her out. Her website just lists the basics. But remember she customizes your tour for you.

Her name is Elena-- https://florencewithflair.com/

Good luck...

Posted by
15682 posts

I think your problem is wanting the tour to begin in Rome, with someone to arrange your train tickets and accompany you either one or both ways? Other than a private guide/custom day trip, I would doubt there's much if anything available in group tours that would provide that sort of service. Your options for small-group tours would be expanded if your group handled the trains to/from Florence yourselves. It's really not a difficult thing to do with just a few pointers in advance.

So, if you could get to Florence on your own, this Walks of Italy tour appears to be available on March 13:
https://www.walksofitaly.com/florence-tours/florence-duomo-tour/

There are likely others, although Context isn't showing any tours available for your date.

A private, custom tour with your own guide should be reasonable with the cost split amongst 10, although if the guide had to arrange your train tickets, travel to Rome to get you and then travel BACK to Florence, that would kick the cost up. Check out the suggestions some of the posters above have provided?